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Friday, June 6, 2014

A Surprise Find

I've been playing tourist ofr the past few weeks and taking a sabbatical from family history. Being in Liverpool this week I have been thinking of our ancestors who left this port on the River Mersey to make new lives in Australia.

Today I visited the Merseyside Maritiime Museum in Liverpool to have a look at their exhibitions which included one on emigration from Liverpool and one on the Titanic.

The Mueum at Albert Dock

I didn't spend as much time looking at the exhibitions as I had intended because I saw the sign below and I just couldn't go past. I packed Mr Geniaus off to see some of the other exhibitions and wandered into the library.

An invitation

The friendly librarian told me that the library held in its collection of books, documents, maps and images materials relating to emigration from Liverpool As it happens quite a few of our ancestors set off on their journeys to Australia from Liverpool. I couldn't remember the names of the ships our ancestors had travelled on from Liverpool and was frustrated that I didn't have my laptop in my bag. Luckily the Museum has free wifi so I was able to access my online tree and identify the ancestors and their ships.

The Library

I stumbled across the library at 4:00pm, just 30 minutes before closing time. In that 30 minutes with the help of the librarian I was able to find information on four of our ancestor's vessels (3 of which were of The White Star Line).

The best find was a photo of SS Ayrshire on which Mr Geniaus' Grandmother, Harriet Parkinson, travelled to Austalia in 1910.

Photo from collection of Merseyside Maritime Museum Library

I was thrilled with my finds but, as I have quite a few more ships to research, I am frustrated that the library is not open again until next Tuesday after I have left Liverpool.

I may just have to return to this city and institution on a future journey.

How exciting for you! The Mitchell Library (Sydney) and John Oxley Library (Brisbane) had photos of all the ships on which my ancestors arrived in NSW and Queensland. Some of the photos are also in Trove.